Customer need for higher bandwidth has fueled growth of passive optical network, an emerging access network that provides high bandwidth to end users, thus permitting a multitude of service offerings from content delivery to Internet access. Passive networks are deployed to minimize costs, making it practical to provide so-called “fiber to the curb.” In a passive optical network, one optical line terminal in a central office serves many optical network terminals at user premises through a passive optical splitter. User optical network terminal is connected to a port of the splitter. Because of the passive nature of the splitters, they cannot provide any switching or buffering capabilities. Therefore, expansion of passive optical networks and growth in number of users of these networks introduce new challenges. Namely, many operations, such as testing, trouble shooting, pro-active maintenance, service connection/disconnection, etc. are provided manually, largely requiring dispatch of field technicians. Manual operations are inefficient, costly, time consuming, and can result in poor quality of service.
Therefore, there is a need for an approach for integrating fiber switches in passive optical networks for remote access and/or automation.